Posts in category 'diy'
Astronomy Hacks
Tonight I decided to get my Red Green on and hack together a really crappy camera mount for my telescope! It’s made from various pieces of vacuum tubing (which happens to be 2” in diameter, the same diameter of the eyepiece holder on my scope), some hardboard, and much tape (unfortunately not the duct variety… yes, I am ashamed. I had to settle for electrical). The end result was this thing:
Yes, it’s as hackish as it looks. The idea is that it sorta fits over the eyepiece holder and has a separate sliding component which allows the mount to adjust for the camera lens position, differing eyepiece lengths, etc.
So, with it, I decided to take another crack at lunar photography. I captured the following image with my wide-field 25mm eyepiece (for about 60x magnification) (in this image, north is to the left):
I’ve sharpened the image to adjust for some atmospheric turbulence and poor focusing on my part. In addition, there appears to be some blurring toward the left edge of the image which is probably a result of the camera not being evenly positioned against the eyepiece.
After staring at a Lunar Map for quite a while, I managed to identify some of the more interesting features. Among them, toward the right edge of the image you can see the famous crater Tycho (it appears smaller than some of the others, but has a prominent central protrusion). This particular crater is the epicenter of a set of lunar rays which, while not incredibly prominent in this image, are visible.
I'm Done With You, Dr. Who!
Oh thank the lord, it’s done. The Dr. Who Scarf is done! And I even took a picture, just like I said I would:
It turned out pretty darn nice, if I do say so myself… a little wavy on the edges, but I blame the varying yarn weight. I swear, it ain’t my fault! It was all the yarn. Stupid yarn.
Anyway, now I’m on to my next project. I figured I’d make a dent in my largish sock yarn collection by making
a pair of socks! Toe-up socks, no less! You see, typically socks are made from the cuff down. Unforunately, this has two disadvantages: - You have to sew the toe closed. And for someone who sucks at Kitchener Stitch (like, say, me), this sucks.
- It’s not possible to try the sock on as you make it.
Making socks toe-up solves this problem. It’s also cool. Or so I tell myself. Anyway, here’s a picture of the current work-in-progress:
Amusingly enough, I have a sneaking suspicion it’s a bit big.
Dr. Who-inspired Knitting
So much Knitting, so little time. I’m currently working on a project for a friend of mine (I’d worry about you reading this, Massie, but… I doubt anyone is reading this :): a Dr. Who Scarf. I used to have a decent picture of the original, but it’s misplaced somewhere, and the best I could find is this:
It’s freakin’ huge… probably about 10-11 feet when finished, many colours, and simply a whole heck of a lot of work. Fortunately, it’s almost done. Almost. Probably another foot to go, and then all the weaving-in-of-ends (damn I hate that part). Once it’s done I’ll put up a couple pictures.
On a more Gardening-related note, Lenore and I decided to plant apple trees! ‘course, we bought them over a week and a half ago, and only now, with our landscaping finally completed, have I been able to get them in the ground. One is a Norland and one is a Battleford, with the Battleford going in the front yard and the Norland in the back. Both are quite small right now (I’ll take some pictures soon), around 2 feet tall, so we won’t be getting a yield for a couple years. But, in the meantime, here’s something to look forward to.
